I'm interested right now in acquiring more specifical and detailed knowledge about Chinese culture before regular contact with Europe was initiated. I want to understand political traditions and general ideologies/religion/doctrines like Daoism, as well as the advent of modern Chinese nationalism, through older history. I feel that my education in history has been based so firmly in a western point of view, I think I need a substantial source on the matter to get myself going. Can anyone here recommend me where to start, some book to read? It's a very broad request, but hopefully someone out there understands my frustration with this knowledge gap :) .
I normally recommend this anyways, as it's a really fantastic series. From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History is a lecture series by Ken J Hammond. It's extremely accessible, and is quite detailed for such a broad series. He covers a lot of the early formative events and systems, and it'd be a great way for you to "know what you don't know", in a way (that is, figure out what you want to google search and go into in more depth on your own).
A question like this was recently asked on /r/chinesehistory, and I'd have to agree with Tiako's answer. The Fairbank book contains an incredible amount of information for its size, and would serve as a good introduction. It's also on the askhistorians booklist, which will have some other good, general recommendations for you.
I think the work of Patricia Ebrey is perfect for what you are after. Try these books:
China: A Cultural, Social, and Political History
and
Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook
She has also set up some nice stuff on their website at UW:
http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/